Of Dye and Dates
by Hopeakaarme
Summary: A random meeting in a park leads to a change in Oishi's hairstyle and being asked for a date by the most unexpected person. Shounen ai NiouOishi. Pure crack.


Disclaimer: I own very little.

A/N: I blame the **tenipuriu** chat and the suggestions therein. The pairing would have never crossed my mind otherwise. ...Now, though, it's begging for a sequel.

* * *

Of Dye and Dates

* * *

The park was all nice and peaceful, although not necessarily empty, people being outside to enjoy the fine afternoon. Oishi was seated on an otherwise empty bench, simply enjoying the warmth and sun and trying to forget about all his numerous worries. 

He'd just managed to get into a state of somewhat tranquil lack of worries -- rather rare for him -- as his peace was disturbed by the approach of somebody. This somebody unceremoniously sat down next to him, saying, "Fancy meeting you there."

It was Rikkai's Niou Masaharu, with golden hair for a change. Well, at least it appeared to be Niou.

"...Which one are you?" asked Oishi, somewhat wary. He tried not to be too suspicious; the tournament was over, after all, and holding grudges would be childish and only cause trouble. However, he couldn't know whether the other teams held grudges instead...

The Rikkai player chuckled. "The one who didn't knock your boyfriend out," he replied with a smirk. "The real Niou."

Now, a flush appeared on Oishi's face. "He's not my boyfriend," he muttered. Of course, Niou was hardly the first one to make such an assumption; Oishi and Eiji were definitely close. However, despite what everybody seemed to think, they were not that close.

"Says you." Niou smirked. "He's always clinging to you, though, isn't he?"

"That's because we are good friends, and Eiji just is like that," Oishi replied. "Besides, he has somebody else he's interested in, not that it's any concern of yours."

"More's the pity." The messy-haired boy shrugged. "It's not like anybody else will ever be interested in you, with that hair."

"...There is nothing wrong with my hair." Oishi was now on the defensive mode, mainly because this was far from the first time somebody had commented on his hair. How exactly was it any concern of theirs, anyway?

"There's so much wrong with it I don't even know where to begin. Although those fangs on your forehead would probably be a good starting point. It looks like your hair's going to eat your head." Niou leant against the back of the bench. "Trust me, I know something about hair, what with all the times I've changed the appearance of mine. And yours is very close to the worst there can be."

Another flush on his cheeks, Oishi turned partly away. "I fail to see how that's your problem," he said. Of course, it may not have been the most polite response possible, but neither was Niou's comment very tactful. Besides, the peace of his fine afternoon had been disturbed. Still, he felt vaguely guilty the moment the words had left his mouth.

"It's not, really," Niou replied calmly. "But I'm bored, and there's nobody but you to bug at the moment. My only other option is finding a way to get somebody's my hands at somebody's shampoo bottle to add in the hair dye I've just bought."

"Is it really wise to do that?" Oishi asked, immediately worried. "They might be allergic to the dye, you know. And it'd be really upsetting if the result turned out to be something horrible, and you shouldn't mess with other people's appearance without their consent, anyway. Not to mention it's definitely not nice. And why are you telling me this, anyway?"

"I never said it was nice," Niou replied. "It is, however, very fun at best. And I'm telling you this because by the time the victim heard anything through whatever grapevine you might get to work it would be too late already. It's not like most people I associate with don't know who to blame for a good majority of whatever pranks are pulled in my vicinity."

"You still shouldn't do anything like that to people," Oishi said. "At the very least, they might decide to get back at you."

"They know I'd just return any revenge threefold. Hey, you know what?" Niou smirked even more worryingly than before. "I think I know of a way to dispatch of the dye in a way you can't disapprove of."

"Oh?" Oishi asked, now even more wary than when the other boy had appeared for the first time. That expression did not promise anything good...

"Easy." Oh, definitely worrying. "I'll just use it on your head. You desperately need a change of style. Anybody would admit that."

"Why should I let you do that?" Oishi asked. Not even he was naive enough to trust the Trickster of the Courts, especially not when the Rikkai player had a very good motive at getting back at the Seigaku players after the Nationals. "How do I know you won't just make it even worse?"

Niou sighed with mock exasperation. "Look, any worse than that and you'd get sued for scaring the kids. I don't hold a damn grudge against you, and if I did, I'd definitely do something more imaginative about it."

"Then why would do something like that, anyway?" the Seigaku boy continued questioning. "It's not like you're going to become a hairdresser, after all. Well, of course I don't know if you are, and it's all right even if you are, but it's just --"

"Because I'm bored," Niou cut him off, tilting his head to the side. "I'm bored, Yagyuu's on a date with Marui, and everybody else's busy so I can't bother them. Besides, that hair of yours insults my sense of style."

"...It's not that bad."

"Oh, yes, it is."

* * *

Oishi wasn't exactly sure how he had ended up in this situation. He must have gone crazy or something, that was for sure -- or perhaps he just wasn't stubborn enough. Ever since first making the suggestion, Niou had kept bringing it up again and again, until finally Oishi had agreed, figuring it would be the only way to get him to stop. He'd immediately been pressured into showing the way to his house -- he just hoped the information wouldn't be used for any pranks later on -- and, after a few calming words to his mother, into the bathroom. 

He probably should have been somewhat insulted at the fact that, when Niou had announced they were going to do something about his hair, his mother's only comment had been "Thank God." However, he was too busy worrying about what the result would look like to worry about such things.

The dye had already been applied, Niou refusing to even tell him what colour it was. Oishi could only hope the result wouldn't be absolutely unbearable. The trickster's reassurances that it would be infinitely better than his old hairstyle were hardly reassuring.

At the moment Niou was busy with styling his newly coloured hair. After a few comments on how most of the said hair was longer than it looked like when it was slicked back and could actually be worked with, with an annoyingly surprised tone, the Rikkai player went on with telling how much work actually switching with another person could be and how they could not trick their captain anyway. This didn't surprise Oishi. He wouldn't have been surprised to hear that a fair majority of the captains of the best teams had super powers of some variety. Besides, even Inui could pull off occasional omniscience, so why not Yukimura?

Finally, after far too much uncertainty for his tastes and almost enough worrying to cause his hair to turn gray beneath the dye, he was allowed a look at a mirror. It was... not bad. Not as bad as he had feared, anyway. The style was something between Momo's and his own first year look, though somewhat shorter. The new colour -- a hue of purple he would have never picked, himself -- was... interesting, but not necessarily bad, either. He was still glad it hadn't ended up in some innocent victim's head, though, even though accidentally using it mixed with shampoo hardly would have resulted in such a deep colour.

"You know," Niou said with a smirk, his breath warm at Oishi's ear as he looked at the mirror over the Seigaku player's shoulder, "you look almost cute like this. Puri."

Oishi flushed a bit. "No I don't," he muttered.

"Yes you do." Niou grinned. "See how much I helped you? With that old hair of yours nobody'd have ever called you cute!"

Oishi pointed out that he didn't necessarily want to look cute. Niou replied with mentioning how useful dates were on spending spare time and how useful looking cute was in getting a date. At this, Oishi responded with saying he wasn't likely to go on a date any time soon, new hair or no new hair.

To this Niou replied with mentioning he was far too bored nowadays with the Nationals over and needed some entertainment, then asked whether Oishi had anything scheduled for the coming Sunday.

* * *

"Oooooishi!" Eiji exclaimed the first thing the next morning. "What happened to your head, nya? You look different!" 

"Eh," Oishi chuckled uneasily. "Good different or bad different?"

"Hmm..." Eiji pursed his lips in thought. "I think it's good different. It's not like Oishi's old style, but it's much better nyaa!"

"Er... thanks." Oishi figured that perhaps his old style had, indeed, been that horrible. It didn't mean everybody had to keep pointing it out to him, though...

"Nya, who did this to you?" Eiji then asked. "If you wanted something new, you could have just told me! I'd have liked to help you, nyaaa!"

"It wasn't really my idea," Oishi replied. "I just ran into an... acquaintance who wouldn't leave me be until I agreed."

"Well, they did a good thing, nya!" Eiji decided, winking teasingly at him. "Tell them my thanks when you next see them!"

"I promise I will," Oishi said, and meant it. He was going to tell that to Niou the next time he met.

Now, as somebody was bound to find out sooner or later, he only had to figure out a way to tell his team mates that he had apparently agreed to go on a date with a Rikkai player.


End file.
